engineering

An unassuming laboratory in a basement corner room of the Black Engineering Building at Iowa State has a lofty goal: to make humans better at what they do. Researchers at the ATHENA Lab are working to improve human performance.

Name a famous person who appears regularly on NPR. His first name can be a noun or a verb, and his last name sounds like an article of clothing. Puzzlemaster Will Shortz joins Host Charity Nebbe to talk about how the New York Times crossword puzzle is put together and a little about his love of table tennis. And hear about real-world problem solving with Invent Iowa, and one particular invention made by middle school girls in Council Bluffs.

Mid-American Energy is planning to invest $1.9 billion in Iowa to add up to about one gigawatt of wind generation, which could power 300-thousand homes. That means more than 600 new wind turbines are expected to be built in Iowa by 2016. Host Ben Kieffer gets details on the project, and he gets a broader look at wind energy in Iowa with both large- and small-scale turbines. We also talk with an ISU professor a grad student working on designing a different wind turbine tower—one made out of concrete.

For 25 years, CareerCast.com has ranked the best and worst jobs. Their rating is based on physical demands, work environment, income, stress, and hiring outlook. Host Ben Kieffer talks with a few people that are on the best and worst lists. Find out what people in those jobs think about their ranking. It includes a Biomedical Engineer, an Oil Rig Worker, an Audiologist, and a Newspaper Reporter.

There’s always work to be done on the farm, but often it’s the same work day, after day, after day. Parts of the job must feel a bit like an assembly line.

While it’s impossible to automate farming like many manufacturers have automated their assembly lines, using robotic technology on the farm might not be so far off.

The biological and agricultural engineering robotics team at Kansas State University knows a thing or two about agricultural robots. They’ve won national robotics competitions in each of the last five years.